Privacy Notice

1. Responsible Party

Waterproofing Cape Town ("we," "us," "our") is the Responsible Party under POPIA for any personal information you submit through www.waterproofingcapetown.co.za, by phone, by email, or in person.

2. Information Officer

Our Information Officer (POPIA s.55–56) is responsible for compliance with POPIA and PAIA and is your first point of contact for any data-protection request, complaint or query. The Information Officer is registered with the Information Regulator (South Africa) as required by s.55(1) read with the IR's registration regulations.

3. What We Collect and Where It Comes From

We collect the following personal information directly from you (the data subject):

3.1 Quote-request and contact-form data

• Name
• Phone number
• Email address
• Suburb / property location
• Property type (freestanding, townhouse, apartment, complex, commercial)
• Service needed (roof waterproofing, damp proofing, leak repair, etc.)
• Urgency
• Free-text message describing the problem

3.2 Voicemail and call data

If you call our published number (021 818 6238) and leave a voicemail, we record the audio, transcribe it automatically (see section 5), and extract structured fields (your name, the suburb, the issue) so we can call you back accurately. We retain your phone number, the call timestamp and call duration.

3.3 Website technical data

• IP address (hashed for abuse-prevention only)
• Browser type and operating system
• Pages visited and referring URL
• Approximate geographic location (country / city level only)

Source: All personal information described above is collected directly from you. We do not buy or rent personal information from third parties.

4. Why We Collect It (Purpose & Lawful Basis)

We process your personal information for the following purposes:

• Responding to your quote request — preparing a quote, scheduling a free on-site inspection, and contacting you about the work (POPIA s.11(1)(b) — necessary to perform a contract or to take steps at your request).
• Booking and dispatching call-outs — coordinating our team to visit your property at the agreed time.
• Invoicing and tax records — fulfilling SARS record-keeping obligations (POPIA s.11(1)(c) — legal obligation).
• Improving our service — internal review of jobs to track quality and turnaround time (POPIA s.11(1)(f) — legitimate interest).
• Responding to enquiries about previous jobs — warranty queries, follow-ups, complaints.

Submission of personal information is voluntary. You are not required by law to give it to us. However, if you choose not to provide your name, phone number, address and a description of the problem, we cannot prepare a quote or schedule an inspection. There are no other adverse consequences.

5. Who Processes Your Information on Our Behalf (Operators)

We use the following operators (POPIA s.21) to host the website, route emails, transcribe voicemails and store leads. Each operator processes your personal information only on our written instructions and is bound by a Data Processing Agreement that requires POPIA-equivalent security and confidentiality safeguards:

We do not sell your personal information to anyone, and we do not share it with marketing lists or third-party advertisers.

6. Cross-Border Transfer of Information

Several of the operators listed above are located outside South Africa, mainly in the United States. We rely on POPIA s.72 to make these transfers lawful — specifically:

• Each operator is bound by binding corporate rules or Standard Contractual Clauses that provide a level of protection substantially similar to POPIA (s.72(1)(a)).
• The transfer is necessary for the performance of the contract you enter into with us when you request a quote (s.72(1)(c)).

If you would prefer not to have your information processed outside South Africa, you may contact us by phone instead at 021 818 6238 — a phone enquiry is recorded in our local notebook and not entered into any cross-border system unless you ask us to email you a written quote.

7. How Long We Keep It

• Quote-request form data: up to 12 months from the date of submission, then deleted (POPIA s.14 — retention only for as long as is reasonably necessary).
• Voicemail audio recordings: up to 12 months from the call, then deleted.
• Voicemail transcripts: retained with the lead record on the same 12-month schedule.
• Tax invoices and quotes for completed jobs: 5 years (SARS / Tax Administration Act 28 of 2011 — overrides the 12-month default for jobs that converted into an invoice).
• Website access logs: 90 days.
• Email correspondence: retained as long as the matter is open, plus 12 months.

You may ask us to delete your information earlier — see section 8.

8. Your Rights

Under POPIA you have the right to:

• Access a copy of the personal information we hold about you (s.23).
• Correct or update inaccurate or incomplete information (s.24).
• Delete personal information we no longer need or that you no longer want us to hold (s.24), subject to records we are required to keep by law.
• Object to processing on reasonable grounds (s.11(3)).
• Withdraw consent where processing was based on consent (s.11(2)(b)).
• Lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator (see section 11).

To exercise any of these rights, email [email protected] or write to our Information Officer at the postal address above. We respond within 30 days.

9. Direct Marketing

We do not send unsolicited marketing communications. We will only contact you about future waterproofing-related offers if you specifically ask us to (POPIA s.69). If you ever do receive a marketing message from us in error, you can opt out at any time by replying STOP, replying UNSUBSCRIBE, or emailing us — opt-outs take effect within 5 business days.

10. Cookies and Tracking

This website does not use Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel, Hotjar, Microsoft Clarity, LinkedIn Insight Tag, TikTok Pixel or any other third-party advertising, retargeting or session-recording tracker. We do not place any first-party tracking cookies either.

Because we run no analytics or marketing trackers, this site does not display a cookie consent banner — there is no non-essential tracking to consent to. The only third-party request the page makes is to Google Fonts, which delivers the typefaces used on the site; Google Fonts does not set tracking cookies in the user's browser.

If we ever add analytics or a marketing pixel in future, we will publish a granular cookie banner with separate opt-ins for analytics and marketing — and ensure no such script loads before consent — in line with the Information Regulator's guidance.

11. Security and Breach Notification

We use HTTPS (TLS) for the entire site, encrypt our lead database at rest, restrict admin access to named individuals with multi-factor authentication, and audit-log changes to lead records. If a security compromise occurs which gives reasonable grounds to believe that your personal information has been accessed or acquired by an unauthorised person, we will notify you and the Information Regulator as required by POPIA s.22, as soon as reasonably possible.

12. Lodging a Complaint with the Information Regulator

If you are unhappy with how we handle your personal information, you can lodge a complaint directly with the Information Regulator (South Africa):

13. PAIA Manual

Under the Promotion of Access to Information Act 2 of 2000 (PAIA), we publish a PAIA Manual describing the categories of records we hold (lead enquiries, written quotes, tax invoices, customer correspondence) and how to request access to them. The R10m turnover / 50-employee small-business exemption ended on 1 January 2022, so every responsible party in South Africa must now publish a PAIA Manual.

A copy can be downloaded from /paia-manual.pdf, requested by email from [email protected], or viewed at our premises (26 Lategan Rd, Hout Bay, Cape Town, 7806) during normal business hours. Access requests are answered within 30 days; the prescribed PAIA access fee may apply.

14. Changes to This Notice

We may update this Privacy Notice from time to time. The "Last updated" date at the top will reflect the most recent revision. Where a change materially affects your rights or how we handle your information, we will display a banner on the homepage for at least 30 days drawing your attention to the change.

15. Related Policies

This Privacy Notice should be read together with our Terms and Conditions and our Disclaimer.